Engineering Commons^™

Large-Scale Electrochemical Degradation Of Poly-And Perfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas) By Magnéli Ti4o7 Electrodes, Laura Siddon

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of synthetic chemicals that are extremely persistent in the environment. They classified as emerging contaminants and have been linked to impacts on the developmental, liver, immune, and thyroid systems, and are possible carcinogens. PFAS’ resistance to biodegradation and conventional oxidation processes make them one of the hardest chemicals to remove from water. With the discovery of PFAS in public water supplies, existing technologies are not capable of removing these recalcitrant contaminants to levels expected for the health of the public. Even in cases when conventional technologies can remove PFAS compounds, removal is …

Rain Rain Flush Away: Evaluating Rainwater Catchment First Flush Volumes, Bridgette Charlebois

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Rainwater harvesting systems often include quality control systems such as a diverted first flush volume to improve the collected water quality. The first flush volume has traditionally been defined as a set volume of rain based on the first 1-2 millimeters of rain that falls on a roof. Diverting a volume of water can be seen as a waste when rainwater is a main source of potable water, sometimes leading to lack of implementation, and thus contaminating the final collected water. Understanding the variability of first flush volume required due to environmental parameters can be used to develop an optimized …

Effect Of Intermittent Water Supply On Water Quality In A Model Pipeloop, Mariam Alkattan

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Intermittent water supply (IWS) is defined as a piped drinking water distribution system that operates for less than 24 hours per day. Water quality is found to be negatively impacted in IWS, which creates a human health risk. There are still may gaps in our understanding of pathways of contamination in IWS, which has been a limitation in creating appropriate solutions to maintain water quality in IWS systems. To characterize these pathways, we ran a study to investigate the impact of intermittency on water quality, biofilms, and water pressure in IWS, which consisted of constructing two identical model drinking water …

Using Remote Sensing And Environmental Precursors To Detect And Predict Cyanobacteria Harmful Algal Blooms In Northeastern Us Waterbodies, Amanda Craver

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs) are a global problem with human health, environmental, and economic concerns. The severity and frequency of toxic cyanoHABs are expected to increase with climate change. Remote sensing has proven to be a useful tool in monitoring cyanoHABs. This study uses remote sensing observations from Sentinel-3Ocean Land Color Imager (OLCI)combined with the Spectral Shape Algorithm (SSA) to detect the presence of cyanobacteria in numerous waterbodies throughout the Northeast United States over 2016to 2020. The ACOLITE processor was used for the atmospheric correction of the Sentinel-3 OLCI data, as it has been shown to provide more accurate …

Drought Characteristics In The Lower Mekong River Basin And Relationship To Land Cover Change, Heejun Park

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Drought can have devastating effects on regional water resources and agriculture, with an estimated US$96 billions of damages globally between 2005 and 2015. In the Lower Mekong Basin, the impacts of drought have been a major concern for local stakeholders as the region is the largest rice-producing area in the world. Few studies of long-term drought in the region have directly assessed the effects of land cover changes on both agricultural and hydrological drought. We used a suite of remote sensing data to assess drought characteristics in five countries of this region (Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar) where traditional in-situ …

Control Effect Of Peracetic Acid On Chlorinated Dbp Formation And The Application Of Paa Pre-Oxidation In Drinking Water Treatment, Yue Sun

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Chlorine has been applied as the main disinfectant in US drinking water treatment for a century. Chlorination is low cost and effective, yet there are problems with this technology, including disagreeable taste of treated drinking water and formation of toxic and potentially carcinogenic disinfection byproducts (DBPs). Alternative disinfection methods including ozone, ferrate and UV light have been studied. They are not widely applied in drinking water treatment because of problems such as the costly generation process or no residual in the system.

Peracetic acid, an easy-to-use and economic friendly oxidant, has been applied as an alternative disinfectant to chlorine in …